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With a major cold air mass expected to cover most of the U.S. this week – as much as 75 percent of the country could experience temperatures below freezing — it’s the time of year when the term “polar vortex” creeps into the news. But it might be a good time to set the record straight on what exactly a polar vortex is, says a Texas A&M University weather expert.

As little as 6,000 years ago, the vast Sahara Desert was covered in grassland that received plenty of rainfall, but shifts in the world’s weather patterns abruptly transformed the vegetated region into some of the driest land on Earth. A Texas A&M university researcher is trying to uncover the clues responsible for this enormous climate transformation – and the findings could lead to better rainfall predictions worldwide.